How are you? I’m an author and executive recruiter (currently at [big impressive company]), and have a book coming out next month. I’ve been told it’s bad form to request a review from a big-name blogger without first building a relationship, but that seems a bit backwards to me (or perhaps just disingenuous). I’d love to get a book review from you and am wondering if you’d be willing. Please let me know if you have any questions or what I can do to be of help.

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Comments (3)

Whoever gave you advice was right.
I get ten of these emails a day.
It would take me about an hour to write the review of your book. But you don’t want to spend an hour, over a year, developing a relationship. So neither of us has an hour to give the other.

Hi Penelope,
Thanks for the quick (and honest) response. I thought it would be more genuine to start with a direct request and hope a relationship built from there, but it sounds like that was probably the misguided thinking of a newbie. This was my first attempt at contacting someone in your world, and I hope you’ll accept my sincere apologies for coming at it the wrong way.

I’m really impressed by your site and writing style. Very fun, and very inspiring. So , how should I go about building a relationship with you (would still love to, if that’s a possibility).

The fast route to a relationship: You’re a recruiter at [huge, impressive company] and I have a startup in the recruiting business (Brazen Careerist). So you should figure out how you can help me with that, and then I’d be more excited about helping you with your book.

The slow route to a relationship: You send me interesting emails, and comment on my blog, and I learn from those moments to enjoy you for your interestingness and I want, more and more often, to talk to you just because it’s nice.